Category: food

So Kong Dong Soon Tofu House

One thing nice about Atlanta is that just about every cuisine is represented here. Korean is one I have very little experience with though. So when we found out that there was a Korean restaurant that was vegan friendly, the gang had to go invade. This is from the second visit to So Kong Dong Soon Tofu House. All you have to do is tell them no fish, no meat, no egg, no fish sauce and they will take care of you.

We started with these banchan. Kind of from left to right: salty radish, radish soup, broccoli in sesame oil, salad, noodles also in sesame oil. The salad and noodles were the same as last visit but I think the rest were new. The internet tells me they switch it up regularly so you don’t always end up with the same things.

Kevin got the Tofu Bibimbap which is what I had last time. It was pretty good, but I like the noodles better.

We shared a Tofu Dumpling Soup. This is the best thing ever. It arrives all bubbling in its caldron. Seriously, next time I’m sick, I will want this. Actually, I want this right now. And I’m already full of dinner.

And I got the Acorn Noodles. It’s a cold noodle dish with lots of shredded veggies. Love it!

I should’ve grabbed a menu so I could give the exact names of the dishes. It’s really helpful to have a guide your first time there like we did. Lisa and David helped us navigate the menu and find the veganizable items.

Composed Quinoa Salad Platter

Now here’s a good one for summer. Healthy, light and room temperature or cold. Actually, I’d vote for room temperature on this one. Remember the sources for recipe by email I posted a few days ago? Well, that’s how I found this recipe by Nava Atlas. I browsed the veggie recipes I’d collected for inspiration while making my shopping list. Kevin doesn’t like olives so I didn’t use them. And I substituted almonds for the pumpkin seeds. And the red bell pepper is there, I just chopped it up and tossed it in with the bean salad. This also made great leftovers for lunch the next day. I tossed it with some baby salad greens that needed to be used up. You could make this really pretty to serve like Nava does, or just kind of throw it on a plate like you see here.

Marinated Tofu Salad

You know those delicious $3+ flavored tofu products you can get? Sure, they’re tasty, but kind of pricy. They’re also easy to make. Especially if you have, speaking of pricy, the Tofu Xpress. It’s not an essential kitchen tool, but it does make dealing with tofu a bit easier. Before I would just press tofu between two plates with heavy cans set on top. But the tofu would never press evenly so I’d often end up running to the kitchen after the cans fell off the top plate making a racket. This thing squeezes most of the water out of your tofu so it can then soak up whatever delicious marinade you choose.

Vegan Vittles has a set of five different marinades that are all tasty. Most of them can be made from staples. So what I did was press the tofu overnight in the fridge in the Tofu Xpress. The next day, I pulled the tofu out of the press and sliced it into 8 planks. All the ingredients for the marinade were combined in the Tofu Xpress, then the tofu went back in without the press part, just the lid. That marinated on the counter for about an hour. Then the tofu went in the George Foreman grill. And in a few minutes it was done perfectly. You could also pan fry or bake it. Wait, what do you do with all that extra marinade? Reuse it! I threw some sliced tempeh in it to marinade. Two for the price of one!

The salad itself was just whatever I found in the fridge. I did pick up mixed baby greens with salad in mind. There was some kale I’d already cleaned and chopped. Carrots are always on hand. Half a red bell pepper and a roma tomato were tossed in. I dressed it with the tofu marinade drippings that landed in the drip pan for the George Foreman, rice vinegar and a little olive oil. With gomashio and sliced almonds sprinkled on top and some weird sea weed snax I picked up at the farmer’s market.

Stewed Tofu and Potatoes in Miso Gravy

Okay, this isn’t summery AT ALL. It is kind of a comfort food though. Especially if you make drop biscuits and dump the stew on top. This recipe reaches back into Vegan With a Vengeance. Because I am too lazy to make a separate side, I usually just toss some frozen peas into the mix towards the end of the cooking time. Now, I’m weird about mushrooms, and this week I finally got tired of tasting mushrooms after eating this 3 or 4 times. But that’s just my own personal problem.

And those biscuits are awesome if you need a quick bread option to go with a meal.

Recipes in your inbox

There are so many different ways to get vegan recipes these days. The easiest is to just search Google. Sometimes you want an endorsed recipe, so you ask your social networks. Maybe you follow some blogs for ideas, subscribe to magazines, buy cookbooks. There’s also the good old fashioned email newsletter subscription. Emailed recipes usually take advantage of in season ingredients which makes it easy to go back and find a group of Thanksgiving appropriate recipes in your email archive, for example. If you hate the idea of more stuff in your inbox, move along now. That’s all this post is about. But if you’re always looking for new recipe ideas and don’t mind a bit of mail, here are a few options:

The Vegan Culinary Experience: This is my favorite. It’s a monthly pdf magazine with articles, interviews, reviews and a ton of recipes that follow a theme each issue. July’s is The Hot & Spicy issue [pdf]. Ancho Vanilla Coffee, Plantains with Chile Ginger Sauce, Sundried Tomato Jalapeño Poppers, Torture Chili and more ranging in spice from mild to eat at your own risk. So many butthurt opportunities here. And the recipes are always interesting. Subscribe here.

Meatout Mondays: This is an oldie but a goodie. I think I’ve been subscribed forever. Every Monday you get a recipe and usually a product review and an article. These recipes are usually pretty easy to prepare and made of easy to find ingredients. Some recent issues included recipes for Southern Sweet Tea Salad, Berry Tapioca Parfaits, Cosmic Cashew Kale, Citrus Tofu & Pineapple, etc. Sign up here.

VegKitchen Recipe of the Week: Cookbook author Nava Atlas shares a recipe a week with links to many more archived on her website. Some recipes from the summer issues: Cool As A Cucumber Soup, Black Bean Tostadas, Composed Quinoa Salad Platter, Israeli Couscous Summer Pilaf, Spanish Vegetable Stew, etc. Subscribe here.

Vegetarian Times: You don’t have to subscribe to the magazine to get recipe emails from Vegetarian Times. They have a Dairy Free & Vegan Recipe of the Week email but I’m actually signed up for the My Vegetarian Times newsletter which is kind of a digest with links to multiple recipes. They have a few subscription options so just choose what makes sense for you. Sign up here.

VegNews Recipe Club: Get a weekly recipe from VegNews. And you may want to sign up for their monthly newsletter. It seems to contain different recipes. Recent recipes: Spinach Thyme Soup, Mango Coconut Sorbet, Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce, Garden-Fresh Ratatouille, Pear & Fig Tart, etc. Find the newsletter sign up in the navigation on the right side of the site.